Innocence

It is the end of the day of Stage 11. Everyone is discussing the disqualification of Mark Renshaw for head butting, including Diderot, who has made himself known to his old friends.

Diderot: Did you see it?

The VeloDrone: No. But you say he was disqualified?

Diderot: Yes. And he is now at the station with his bags packed,waiting to go home.

Le Bon David: Half his luck!

Jean Paul Sartre: I am inclined to agree.

Belle et Bonne: Now I'm sure you don't mean that, you two.

Simone de Beauvoir: No they don't, it is their tired legs talking. Let us change the subject. Monsieur Diderot, I did not know what to think, after finishing your book, The Nun.

Jean Paul Sartre: There's a turn-up! You usually know exactly what to think about everything.

Belle et Bonne: Hee hee!

Le Bon David: You sound just like your papa when you laugh like that, Belle et Bonne.

Belle et Bonne: Oh how embarrassing! I shall never laugh again.

Diderot: But Simone, why was it that you did not know what to think?

Simone de Beauvoir: It was just too confusing! Your story of the nun is beautiful, intriguing and sad, with a great deal of satire directed towards convent life, and more than one hint that the young woman Suzanne is not quite as innocent as she portrays herself.

Diderot: Yes I got quite carried away with my story. I shed many a tear as I wrote it. As to her innocence, Simone, is that what you found confusing?

Simone de Beauvoir: No monsieur! It is your preface placed at the end of the novel that is confusing! What are we to think when you tell us the story is part of an elaborate hoax?

Diderot: That it is still a good story, whether told by a man in the voice of a nun, or told by a man using the voice of a man playing a trick upon another man using the voice of a nun. The story remains the same. And it was based on a true story, although that story had a different ending.......

Belle et Bonne: Thank goodness for that. Is it bedtime?